The pyruvic acid is a starting material favorizing the preparation of essential amino acids, such as tryptophane, tyrosine or alanine. It is a compound which also has the advantage of being used as an additive conferring an acidulous flavor.
It is known that the culture of yeasts such as those of the Candida type results in pyruvic acid being produced in the culture medium. However, The amount of pyruvic acids produced in such conditions is small and it is difficult to envisage this production to be realized on an industrial scale owing to its low yield.
It is known by means of the method of the French patent FR-A-2 277 890 on how to produce pyruvic acid by fermentation, which makes it possible to increase the yield of pyruvic acid by using special yeasts which are Candida type mutants requiring thiamine and methionine for their growth.
This method therefore has the drawback of requiring the use of special yeast branches.